Dan Mountford is a graphic designer/photographer who has a skill of making great double exposures. His works are all made first in camera without photoshop overlays. He does use photoshop and illustrator to edit the photo but the initial double exposure was all done in camera. If you want to check out more of his work then check out his Flickr account.





Source: Flickr

Well here it is the first new playlist of 2011, Playlist-22 Compiled by Damion. In this playlist I wanted some more upbeat style tracks to get the new year pumping. I'm not going to lie there are some slow tracks up in the mix. If I should give you any advices on this playlist though you should definitely check out track 14 Animale Datsik Remix. This dubstep remix is just off the hook with its super dirty basslines. If it doesn't touch your dubstep fancy then I don't know what to tell you. I think that this playlist has a nice flow although I could be wrong cause the Ray Ban Vision track might through it off. I don't know I just like the track and had to share it. Let me know what you think.

If you want to check out any of the other Playlist then click on Archived Playlist in this post or on the right hand side of this blog.


Cover art by: Damion Schweizer

Tracklist

1. Open the Wormhole in Your Heart by Warm Ghost
2. All Day (Niva Remix) by The Concretes
3. Baby Mama by Star Slinger
4. Being Bad Feels Pretty Good by Does It Offend You, Yeah?
5. Dominos by The Big Pink
6. Burning by The Whites Boy Alive
7. Giant Hands by Dog and Panther
8. I Know I Don't Know by Jonquil
9. Magic Tricks by Whalers
10. Marathon by Tennis
11. Microlite by Trophy Wife
12. Reds by Houses
13. Ray Ban Vision ft. CyHi Da Prince by A-Trak
14. Animale (Datsik Remix) by Don Diablo ft. Dragonette
15. Hawaii Chrome Sparks Remix by Blackbird Blackbird

Website are sometimes to crowded and to much is going on. So it's a little hard to follow the concept or find what your looking for. That is one of the reasons why I like the clean and minimalistic styles of some website. I have added a couple of sites that I think have a clean and minimal look. So if your looking for a clean and minimal style to inspire you hopefully these can give you a start.

8020 Studio

Claire Coullon

Black Box Press

SVPPLY

D'Arcy Jones

Source: WDL

I rarely ever do a post about furniture but this piece I couldn't pass up. The Kinesis Chair and Ottoman created by Thos. Moser. He has designed a chair with a matching ottoman that is not just a chair but a sculpted piece of art. The collection, called Kinesis, features a chair with a sensuous seatback and arms; the sleek lines look as if they would be at home in a Porsche. I'm sure your wondering at this point how much does this sweet chair cost. Well I will tell you. Upholstered in a natural cowhide or soft suede-like cloth these are your choices. The Walnut color will run you $7,350.00 and matching ottoman will run you $2,425.00 for a total of $9,775.00. I know I couldn't afford it but it's still nice to look at. I have added video below where David Moser talks about how his design came to be.





Source: NYTimes

The Perch ($180) is a classy and sleek designed portable wireless speaker that's designed for use with mobile media. This two-piece speaker/dock features Bluetooth for wireless audio streaming, a magnetic charger built into the dock, which also has a tray for charging your smartphone or media player. It also has built-in digital clock with alarm function, and an integrated microphone for conference calls or video calls. The Perch also has a hinge on the backside so you can prop the speaker up in the portrait mode.

This Perch is currently in presale status on Quirky. Once it's quota is reached it will then be put into production. Quirky is a site where an idea can become a reality. I would love to explain it to you but I think the video below will do a better job then me. So if you have an idea join Quirky and you can have your idea become a reality like this product.

Sustainable houses are something that I think are great and fascinating. I found this house that was built by Crosson Clarke Carnachan architects in Great Barrier Islands. The house is nestled in a beautifully private setting surrounded by nothing but nature. The living zone opens completely to this setting, and the timber exoskeleton references the surrounding trees. The bedrooms all have protected outdoor space, being closely located to the trees for increased privacy. The house is located to protect the existing vegetation and to make the most of the sun and the native bird life on the property.

Being on Great Barrier Island, the building also needed to be sustainable - the following abstract from an e-mail received from the Clients refers to this point: “The outdoor room is a place we spend much of our time, eating, reading, doing homework and siesta-ing; but the feeling of being indoors on those hot summer days with all doors open is also fantastic. Not cold enough (owing to that great low E glass and good design) for fires yet - we have had 2 only for ambience, not heat. “It is an astonishingly decadent feeling lying in a bath of free water, heated by the sun, pumped by solar power. Free as anything! Hot water gets up to 68 degrees in the tank from the sun, and has to be cooled to come out the tap. “With 9 staying and all the laptops, music, washing etc we’ve only run the generator 3 times ever. All the irrigation systems do clever things. So it’s more than a PC nod to sustainability, as you know from all our fussing about timbers and paints.”






Source: Crosson Clarke Carnachan

When I first saw these poster designs by Mark Brooks it immediately caught my attention and sucked me in. The color tones and the minimal yet subtle design of each poster had me searching around for more of his work. Mark designed these posters for SantaMonica a Barcelona based brand that presents a very solid and refined graphic identity with there prints and t-shirts.

The one that really caught my attention out of this series of posters is the particle acceleration poster with the giraffe. The idea and the concept are quite interesting using the spots of a giraffe to symbolize the idea of particles separating. Well I will leave you to checking out the posters now but I will leave you with a little fact about giraffe's. The word "giraffe" comes from an Arabic word, "zirafah", which means "the tallest of all".






Source: Behance

First off I would like to thank everyone that enter the contest for the "The Collective Loop Poster" and the $15 Gift card to iTunes. So with out further ado I would like to present the winner of the 400th post giveaway and that goes to Monique McCulley.

Congrats Monique on winning the giveaway. Please send me an email letting me know how you would like your prize shipped to you.

Again Thanks to everyone that entered. I look forward to doing more giveaways in the future.

Parachute Journalists is an indie/folk/punk band with members Jeff Finley and Adam Wagner from Go Media in Cleveland, Ohio. This gig poster below was created for a January 9th concert at the 5 O’clock Lounge. The first poster below is one of many items intended to define the visual branding of the band. I have also added a couple of other poster designs I found for the band that were created by Go Media. I'm really enjoying the concept and the feeling of each poster. The first poster though has some really good composition in form, color and association.

If you want to check out the bands music check out this link.







Source: rafdevis

Man About Town starring Kilian Martin was an interesting concept of combining two different ideas together. Who would have thought making a video of fashion and skateboarding would be so cool. What really catches your attention is Kilian Martin who is one of the best freestyle skateboarders in the world. Hands down this guy will have you going whaaaattt! No way did you see that! Below I have added two other videos A Skate Escalation and A Skate Regeneration that also showcase his freestyling street talent.

When watching these freestyle skate videos a lot of you will immediately think of Rodney Mullen who was one of the original gangsters of freestyle skateboarding. This is what Kilian stated about Rodney in an interview he did when he was asked about his feelings on being compared to Mullen. He stated, I really respect all that he has done. In some ways, he changed skateboarding by inventing so many awesome tricks. He is a pioneer and skateboarding legend all the way. I am over being compared with Rodney Mullen. I know many people do it, and I’m not sure if I will ever be able to change that. It is because Rodney has been the only person mixing Freestyle and Street in an artistic new way. So, sometimes when people see me mixing these two skateboarding styles I get compared…Anyways, I try to do my own tricks and give it my own style. I personally think that both are very talented and each brings their own style and passion to the streets of freestyling.





Source: thefoxisblack

I was super excited when I found out about Wordmark.it from the Jetstreamprojector's Blog. It was a great find and something I'm sure a lot of you out there would appreciate. Wordmark.it is a site that allows you to preview all the fonts installed on your machine. All you have to do is just type in whatever word you want and bam! It gives you a visual representation of what it will look like with the font's installed on your machine. Just like in the above image. The creator behind this site is Fahri Özkaramanlı and let me be one of the people that thanks you for creating this. It will now save me a lot of time from sitting there going through my fonts to find the right one. Now I can do it in a one stop shop in less time and for that I thank you.

This is going to be a good show on January 26th at the Crowbar in Tampa, Fl. Tokyo Police Club, Two Door Cinema Club and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. All three band have been talk about on this blog or they have been added to the monthly Playlists. I'm excited for this show because I have yet to see Two Door and Boris Yeltsin. It looks though that now tickets are only available at the door or at Daddy Kool Records in St. Pete. Although the website states that their are a lot of available tickets at the door. I don't want to take my chances so I'm going to go pick my ticket up today. Show starts at 8p.m. and tickets are $15/$18 All Ages. Well hope to see some of you there.

This guy has some skill when it comes to manipulating paper. The time it takes for each piece is no 5 minute job for him. Sometimes it can take almost a whole day or more to complete one project. As an artist, Brian Chan was particularly drawn to Origami because it adds the extra challenge of folding from a square and incorporates a lot of geometry, which was his more favored sector of mathematics. I have added some of the ones I thought were cool below but check out his site to see what else he has created.

View more images.

In celebration of the new name and redesign and the fact that it's the blogs 400th post. I thought that a giveaway was in order. So lets get started on how you can win. You can enter by subscribing to The Collective Loop RSS, Liking The Collective Loop on Facebook Page, Joining the Newsletter or by following us on Twitter. ( Please read the details below) You can use all the methods of entry, giving you 4 entries into the giveaway and increasing your odds of winning.
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Enter by Subscribing to The Collective Loop RSS Feed:

First, Leave a message in the comments section of this post. (Tell us your favorite The Collective Loop post from the past year)

Next Subscribe to our free RSS Feed (seen in the upper right corner of the website). If you already subscribe, you’re all set, no need to subscribe again.
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Enter by Liking our Facebook Page:

"Like” the The Collective Loop Facebook Fan Page + leave the following message ” hey @thecollectiveloop count me in for the giveaway http://tiny.cc/gn1tt"
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Enter by Following us on Twitter

1. Follow us on twitter @pdragon65

2. Tweet the following message ” hey @pdragon65 count me in for the giveaway http://tiny.cc/gn1tt"
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Join and Sign up for the Newsletter

Join by signing up for the monthly Newsletter. Each newsletter is sent out at the end of each month.
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Selecting the Winner

On Friday Jan. 21, 2011 we will randomly select the winners from all the entries. The first name we draw will win.

We will announce the winner on Dec 17th in the RSS Feed, The Collective Loop Facebook Fan Page as well as our Twitter stream.


and now for the prizes………..

An 11x17 Poster designed by Damion S. for The Collective Loop and a $15 dollar gift card to itunes.

Well folks it's official now. I want to cordially welcome you to The Collective Loop, which was formerly known as Damion DJ & Producer Blog. There was a couple of reasons why I thought a change was needed.

Reasons for the change

1. The name was too long and was too personal
2. The design needed to be more clean and minimal
3. It needed a name people would remember easily
4. It needed a name that matched the ideas of what was being written
5. The link to the site was too hard to remember and too long
6. To have a more professional looking blog
7. To better understand the blogger platform and it's components

Here is what it use to look like:
www.damionscsav.blogspot.com



Here is what it looks like now:
www.thecollectiveloop.com

Behind the Design

In the new design I wanted to keep the same background colors and some of the same colors as the old site. I did however add in some new colors as well. I also wanted to have a new banner header that had a rollover image to give it a different feel to it. (I will be changing those every so often). Then came the navigation which I wanted underneath the banner header with some space between the post header and the navigation. So that it gives it a focus point and a cleaner look. I also added a new favicon to the Wibya search bar and to the site to give it a branded feel as well.

On the side navigation I wanted something that was also clean that had rollovers to give a clear idea of what you where clicking on. The idea for the Stay in the Loop section came from a blog that I follow called: Wanken. I hope he doesn't get offend that I used his well designed style. I also added ways for you to search the site to easily find other articles. I set the site up to be a 2 column setup to keep it from being out of control and messy.

In the posting section of the blog I decided that it would work better if I put the date underneath the title instead of being above. I then didn't like how they lineup so I added an icon to the title of each post. It's an indicator of a new post title and it dis-aligns the title and the date. I also cleaned up the footer as well. Not a lot of people were leaving comments and that might be because the comment section was so small and it could easily be missed. So I increase the size and color to hopefully grab the attention of people who want to comment. Then came the other options in the footer that needed a little sprucing up so I added some icons next to the options and also changed the colors. I then added a new sharing option because on the old site. It was being over looked or it was just not keeping the site clean and it was taking up to much space.

Well I'm going to stop rambling now. So I hope you enjoy the new redesign of the site and I look forward to coming up with new ways to better the site. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think and also share with your friends and family.

Yes! That is all I can say. I'm excited for the NEW album by Goddamn Electric Bill. He has been talking about it and teasing tracks all of last year so it's good to actually see a finished project.

Jason Torbert also known as GDEB began writing and producing the tracks for Jazz as a score for an indie film, "Douchbag," which was nominated for Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize last year. So he starting producing and after inspiration hit his ear Torbert found himself surrounded by tons of new material which he saw as a potential to make one solid album.

The album Jazz will be released on February 8, 2011 and will be released on CD with only 300 copies made. He will have it available on Vinyl as well with only 250 available. Each will be hand numbered. In the mean time if you can't wait till February 8th then you're in luck. Goddamn Electric Bill has put up the whole album up on his website for your streaming pleasure. I have also put it up on the blog as well. If you like what you hear support your artist and check out his shop.